hello,

My XK8 is experiencing some kind of electrical glitch. The steering wheel is adjusted via a small knob on the left side of the column but it is not adjusting up and down as far as it used to. The car only has 10,000 miles on it so this is rather annoying. I am assuming this is an electrical issue. Is there a simple way to remedy this problem? Thanks.

Alex

 

It is probably an electro-mechanical issue and a fairly common one. There are several things working here. The steering column lubrication dries out and makes the motor work harder. The position potentiometer gets 'dead spots' and stops the motor from working. And then there is the ever popular potentiometer failure that causes the motor to continue to run and strips the flex cable that moves the column.

Best advice I can give you is to exercise it via the memory buttons while assisting the steering wheel movement. On a previous car I set the memory 1/2 on each side of the problem area and 'exercised' it. Seemed to have fixed the issue for as long as I had the car.

 

If i cannot fix this myself what am I looking @ $ wise to get it repaired?

 

Dealer did mine under warranty, but they replaced the upper steering column to fix the reach motor cable failure. Sorry, don't have a labor estimate. You may be better off finding a member who's replaced those little cables, fly them out, and buy them dinner after they tear apart your steering column.